A song of serious artistic purpose designed for the concert hall as opposed to traditional songs or folk songs. An art song is usually sung by a solo voice with accompaniment. In German it is called lieder, in French, chanson. An art song is a complete composition in itself and is not part of a larger work such as an opera or and oratorio. A serious vocal composition, generally for voice and piano. Denotes a self-contained work, as opposed to an aria.

Select from a letter above to find a music term in the Artopium index, or enter your music word into the search box provided by Google Search. Check out these additional resources for musical terminology below.